My Life Casual Sweater Set

While I love including fancy outfits with the doll donations I also try to include simple outfits that a child can mix and match to have options for individual styles for the doll. This was a quick set to make that added some fun touches.

The pants are more of a leggings style than the pants I generally make for the doll as they fit a little more snuggly. I suspect kids will relate to the style. The boots were another cute touch to the outfit and these items will mix and match with other items that will be a part of the donation.

This was made using Adoring Doll's Casual Sweater Set that can be purchased here. I used an H hook for this project and various brands of acrylic worsted weight 4 yarn. I keep buying buttons when I find them on sale or need an additional item to make minimal shipping charges so I thankfully had heart buttons to use for this project.

My Life Claret Dress

I've been making a point of attacking orphan skeins of yarn in my stash. While looking for yarn to complete this project I came across a single skein of Lion Brand Wool Ease in Cranberry. I don't generally buy Wool Ease so this could have been left over from a specific project or it could be from one of my senior center/Church sale yarn pick ups that I've been working off over the last few years. It was close but one skein was enough to finish the dress. I used a skein of I Love This Yarn to make the shoes.

As for the dress pattern this is the second pattern included in the free Harriet set found here. Crochetville has now pinned the link to all Darski's patterns so if you decide you like this one you should be able to find a list of all her doll patterns while visiting the site here.

I've pretty much narrowed down my shoe patterns for patterns that don't include shoes to two from patterns I purchased from Sweet Silver Creations just because I can almost make them in my sleep now. This pattern is from her School Girl Uniform pattern and can be purchased here.

This was the last item I made for the donation last year and I'm getting it done a bit earlier this year. I had to use a larger hook on the top and I suspect that is a combination of my guage and using different yarn. I returned to the suggested hook once I joined the outfit.

My Life Hearts and Flowers

I'm working on using up yarn I have left over from last year's donation projects and Darski's free Hearts and Flowers pattern found here was a perfect choice to attack my stash yarn.

I used a larger hook K for the first 4 rounds swithching back to the I hook as this is a slip on dress and it was tight at the waist when I started. I did end up needing to decrease using the I hook at the top as it was larger having started with a a larger hook but it is neither too loose or too tight at the waist.

This could just be a challenge of my current guage. After years of making the doll diapers with a K hook I switched to an I hook this year finding they fit better. These notes are strictly for my own use when I make these outfits again.

I changed the flower trim to just one flower and I have it tie in back of the doll's head rather than at the back on the top of the dress as Darski does. It was just a simpler solution for me.

When it comes to shoes I tend to be a creature of habit unless there is a pattern that comes with shoes. These shoes are part of of Sweet Silver Creation's Sailor Dress pattern purchased here.